Writer of Creative Nonfiction

Going Aloft, Chapter 19

You meet all types of people in foreign harbors. People from many different backgrounds and experiences, who hail from different ports-of-call, who hold strange world views. It’s one of the marvelous things about traveling- you expose yourself to people who you would never meet by staying home.

Each person helps you grow a little bit, gives you a little more perspective on who populates the world we live in, and informs you of the depth and breadth of human experience. Sometimes, these people are positive forces for good in the world; other times, not so much. Often, though, they’re a little of both- only in literary fiction are people so polarizingly clear about whether they are good or bad, especially at first glance.

Going Aloft is a work of nonfiction, and one such person who we met in Nassau was a mad German fellow with whom we would eventually aquatically hitchhike home. He seemed nice at first, generously offering his time and expertise to help us out with some projects around the schooner, but when we got on board with him two months later, it was a different story, a waking nightmare. That story will be told, but not right now. First, let’s meet the man.